Olivia of Troy - The Fine People and the Expendable Ones

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Eight years ago, torch-bearing young men marched through the University of Virginia, their faces illuminated by hatred as they chanted: "Jews will not replace us." In response, then-President Donald Trump referred to these individuals as "very fine people"—words that didn't merely excuse hate, but legitimized it, amplified it, and embedded it into our national discourse. Now he wants to deport someone who said Israel shouldn't kill my family. Regardless of where one stands on the issue of Israel and Palestine, we should be deeply concerned about what is happening here right now.

The message couldn't be clearer: In Trump's America, some are "fine people" deserving of protection, while others are expendable—their humanity conditional, their rights revocable. But that’s not how the First Amendment works. Where does Jim Jordan’s Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government stand on this issue? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Today, in Trump's second term, we witness the bitter harvest of those seeds. Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia University, was dragged from his apartment by ICE agents last week. His crime? Daring to speak for his family trapped under bombardment in Gaza. Daring to question policies that have turned his homeland into rubble. Daring to exercise the very rights this nation claims to cherish. Thus far, that is what we know to be as fact. The reality is that this case is likely to be a test of our judicial system when it comes to immigrant rights in our country and where we as the United States draw the line between protected free speech and alleged support for groups designated as terrorists.

Khalil's detention isn't a mistake or an aberration—it's a deliberate strategy. The administration has methodically recategorized pro-Palestinian activism as support for terrorism, transforming concerned students and terrified family members into alleged national security threats. This calculated conflation also serves an additional purpose: to criminalize dissent.

https://www.livingitwitholiviatroye.com/p/the-fine-people-and-the-expendable

[slightlv]

1. You forgot to add that Mahmoud wasn't an "illegal alien"

he is an American citizen. ICE did this after a peaceful protest (if you even call it a protest when he was simply asking questions), to am American citizen. Dragging them out of his home and away from his family in the middle of the night.

Yes, I've been following this one. It's important. Free speech is not simply speech you agree with. For decades we've been told (and agreed) we had to put up with speech we detested because of it's hateful content, because free speech means speech whether you agree with it or not. Obviously, for trump and musk, free speech is only lawful when it agrees with whatever they're thinking at the moment. You and I are obviously not going to agree with much of anything these awful people do. Does that mean we still have free speech? I posit we no longer have that right guaranteed to us by the constitution. trump has said so, and made it so. No longer do we not have to worry about being woken in the middle of the night and dragged out of our houses. No longer is evidence against trump validating to our defense. We should all follow Mahmoud's situation, regardless of the way you feel about the I/P issue.